Zappa Recommendations ?

The only early Zappa record I dislike is Rueben And The Jets.

I think the Op could be enamored with The Illinois Enema Bandit?

After he cashiered the original Mothers, Zappa tended to go back and forth between instrumental music and his day/night job of being a latter-day version of Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. To the best of my knowledge (though often off the top of my head):

Essentially Instrumental:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Orchestral Favorites

London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 1, 2, 3

Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger

Francesco Zappa

Some Vocals, Largely Instrumental

Uncle Meat

Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Weasels Ripped My Flesh

200 Motels

My favorites out of these would be Lumpy Gravy, Uncle Meat, Weasels Ripped My Flesh and Francesco Zappa. Many of the live recordings have long instrumental interludes.

@stuartk There are many reasons to hold FZ in high regard as a musical force, but his complete disregard and rejection of the high culture/low culture divide is certainly one of them. These cultural categories are associated with class, status and power within our society. Things Zappa questioned and ridiculed at every opportunity. In the end all musical sounds, no matter in what style, were nothing but ’wiggling air molecules’. His job as a composer was to ’organize the material’ towards an intrinsic musical logic. For Zappa that logic was ultimately ’anything as long as it sounds good’. If that meant putting a Stravinsky quote next to a doowop line, than so be it.  The sounding result doesn’t fall inside any established or accepted cultural category, so whether you like it or not is entirely up to you.

@edgewear:

"There are many reasons to hold FZ in high regard as a musical force, but his complete disregard and rejection of the high culture/low culture divide is certainly one of them. These cultural categories are associated with class, status and power within our society"

Thanks for providing useful context. 

My Dad considered european classical music superior to all others, so I can relate to the "highbrow" attitude. Having grown up a poor, marginalized Jewish kid in NYC, no doubt this attitude was part of his strong desire to improve his "class, status and power".   

"His job as a composer was to ’organize the material’ towards an intrinsic musical logic. For Zappa that logic was ultimately ’anything as long as it sounds good’. If that meant putting a Stravinsky quote next to a doowop line, than so be it.  The sounding result doesn’t fall inside any established or accepted cultural category".

This irreverence regarding common stylistic boundaries is one of the things with which I struggle the most, listening to Zappa. To me, it more often sounds jarring than "logical". 

 "...so whether you like it or not is entirely up to you".

I'm not convinced our aesthetic tastes are a matter of conscious choice, if that's what you're suggesting but that's a debate for another day. I very much appreciate all of your contributions to this thread!

port this

@heretobuy:

Thanks for the suggestions.